Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The lessons that these animals taught me have been subtle, startling, and inspirational, playing a small but vital part in helping to shape the person you see with the stethoscopearound his neck. --Dr. Nick Trout

New York Times bestselling author Nick Trout has captivated readers by takingthem behind the scenes into the heartwarming--and sometimes heartrending--world of veterinary medicine. In Ever By My Side, Nick turns the lens inward to offer a funny, moving, andintimate memoir about how the pets he has had throughout his life have shaped him into the son, husband, father, and doctor he is today. Using his relationships with those beloved animals to tell his life story, Nickshares the profound lessons he's learned about friendship, loyalty, and resilience. The result is a moving story that speaks not just to animal lovers, but to any reader who appreciates the bonds we have with ourloved ones, be they animal or human, and the lengths to which we go to nurture those bonds.

Nick waxes nostalgic about his boyhood in a working-class British suburb, where a large German shepherd namedPatch was the perfect companion to a scrawny, bookish boy in a neighborhood full of bullies. He writes about his relationship with his father, the man who nurtured Nick's dream of becoming a vet, even though hecouldn't have imagined the career would lead his only son 3,000 miles away. He describes wooing his future wife and stepdaughter and (perhaps most difficult of all) their ornery cat. And he offers a poignantchronicle of his daughter's devastating diagnosis of cystic fibrosis and how a little yellow Labrador retriever played an important role in bringing joy to their family when they needed it most. AlongsideNick's warm reflections, the pets in these pages come alive as irresistible characters in their own right and showcase the power of animals to offer a lifetime of consolation, guidance, and abidingaffection.

Tender, wry, and ruminative, Ever By My Side is a tribute to the power and beauty of ordinary life and a celebration of how pets make it all the sweeter andricher.

Table of Contents

UnionJack — The definition of different — The aura of dog — Blessings in childhood time — Sea change — The weight of healing — Trying to learn and learning to try — In defense of happiness — Stars and Stripes — C is for cat — The end of goodbye — The secret to normalcy — Same dance, different song — And miles to go before I sleep — The enigma of canine motivation — The gift of second chances — Concentric circles.

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